You have 168 hours each week to design your life. You use some of the hours for sleeping, some for exercising, some for eating, some for showering, some for work, and some for family—but when you run out of your 168 hours, you are out!

Time is the one commodity you can’t create more of. Once it is gone, it is gone. You can always make more money; you can’t make more time. Or can you?

You are limited in what you can accomplish each week by the mere fact you only have 168 hours. However, there is no limit to what can be accomplished each week if more people pitch in to help.

When you effectively delegate some tasks, it’s like adding 10, 20, 40, 80, 800 hours to your week. It’s almost as if you are creating more time each week.

When I work with clients, one of the first things they share with me is they just aren’t sure what they can delegate. They admit that delegating, in theory, makes sense. However, they aren’t sure how to apply it to their business.

There isn’t a “one size fits all” solution to the delegation challenge. However, there is a process you can follow to find a solution that works for you.

Use the Acronym A.W.E.

You can determine which tasks to delegate by following a three-step process represented by the acronym A.W.E.

A—Awareness. What are some of the tasks currently on your plate?

W–Work. How do you decide which tasks to delegate?

E–Evaluation. What worked and how do you do more of it?

Get ready to delegate! The following exercise will take about 20 minutes to complete–and the payoff is you’ll gain a minimum of three hours of you do it effectively. That’s pretty good ROI on 20 minutes, wouldn’t you agree?

Awareness: The exercise begins by defining what is important and determining what is on your plate.

Step #1: List your top 3 goals.

Step #2: What is your Zone of Genius? That is, list the things in your life and your business that only you can do. (Hint: If you are honest, this list should be pretty short.)

Step #3: Next, list all the things that you “don’t have time to do.” What are the tasks you put off because you don’t like doing them? What are the tasks you are waiting to start until the “timing is right”?

Step #4: Pull out to-do list out from the last week and your to-do list for next week.

Work: At the next stage, you can start to narrow down the tasks you can delegate.

Step #5: Look at your to-do list and your “I don’t have time to do this” list, and for each task, ask yourself, “What goal does this task support?” Write the corresponding goal next to the task. (Hint: Writing the goal down ensures you don’t just skip this part.)

Step #6: You are almost finished with the exercise now! Put a smiley face next to all the tasks that line up directly with your Zone of Genius.

Step #7: Circle the items that relate to a goal, but do not have a smiley face. These are the tasks in your business or life that can be delegated. They support a goal and they are not in your Zone of Genius. They don’t need to be done by you to be done effectively. (Bonus tip: If a task doesn’t directly support a goal, why are you doing it?)

Step #8: Delegate at least three of these tasks.

Evaluation: Determine how effectively each task you delegated was completed and how much time it saved you. Do more of what works! When you can do more of what works and less of what doesn’t, life becomes much easier. Yet many people forget to slow down long enough to think through what is working. Take 10 minutes to check back at the end of the week and ask yourself these questions: Who was a great delegating resource? What tasks were easy to let go of? What tasks do you want to outsource next? Where were the struggles? How can you fine-tune the process?

Congratulations! You have at least three tasks circled. Start delegating and start increasing the number of hours you have available each week to accomplish your goals.

Remember, this process is not a one-and-done kind of thing. To be effective, as your tasks and goals change, the evaluation process becomes more important. Regular process improvement means you are always on task for your Zone of Genius!

advertisement

advertisement

advertisement

advertisement

advertisement

advertisement

@roofingmag on Twitter

July/August 2018

Read our latest issue in digital format.

About Roofing

Roofing is a national publication that unravels, investigates and analyzes how to properly design, install and maintain a roof system. Through the voices of professionals in the field, Roofing’s editorial provides a unique perspective.